Progress Report

New Stories: As far as I can remember, I haven't written anything new since my last entry about maps. Maybe a couple pages or so in that one story (being vague is as cool as this other thing) that I have no idea what's happening in (though I have more character development in my head--not written down or anything) or where it's going, but still think about and write anyway. It's at a standstill right now.

Princess Cleo: Ugh. Don't even remind me. Nada, nada, y pues nada (a direct quote from Hemingway...don't I sound so smart? Except then of course I just spelled his name wrong but fixed it so no one would notice...and now that I'm saying this people will notice. At least, the people who read this blog will).

Poetry: Honestly, I don't write much poetry. But I added the rest of my cheese poems to the page about them, so now they're all in one place and easy to find. And I don't have to clutter future posts with them. I shoulda done them all at once when I first started this blog. Oh well.

Old Stories: Ah, now here is where we see some progress. I have been busy busy busy, working on editing the big kahuna. What I did was print off a double-spaced copy of the story (266 pages, for the record, which is a little over an inch of paper when I double-sided it), all my notes on it (and maps), character worksheets, etc., and bound them together with convenient (and cheap!) office supplies. Add to that lots of sticky notes, post-it flags, and a bright red pen and you've got an edited story! At least, partially edited. I just finished chapter 5 (of 18) last night. It takes a lot longer to edit than it does to read. But anyway, after I edit (which is where I point out my mistakes and all the flaws in every page, sentence, word, and phoneme), I will revise (which is where I attempt to fix all those silly mistakes). After I revise, I will do a quick skim for flowiness (yes, it is now a word), then hand it over for peer-edits. After that, another revision and another skim, and then...work on the query letters begins. It is my hope that I will have my story at a point where I'm comfortable with sending it in to the big people in a year (I'll give myself till next August. That is when I'll start writing query letters, if I haven't already).

They say patience is a virtue. It's one I don't have. Let's see if I can gain some.

In Other News: I found my jump drive. It's been missing for nearly a year. It had several stories I was working on over the summer (but quit anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal) that I lost. Even if I stop working on a story, that doesn't mean I want to get rid of it. I like having my old stories for future ideas and such.

Ideas: I wrote one idea down in my notebook for such things. Don't judge. It's only been a month since my last idea. I'm on a roll.